06 Jul 2026

I Got the Show Right Here, Its Charms Are Crystal Clear: Countryside Community Theatre's “Guys & Dolls,” at the North Scott High School Fine Arts Auditorium through July 12

By Pamela Briggs

Before Friday night at Eldridge's North Scott High School Fine Arts Auditorium, I hadn’t seen Guys & Dolls. Go on and clutch those poils, doll. I do not know the show. So sue me. But I had a swell time. In spades!

06 Jul 2026

JoJo a Go Go: “Seussical,” at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre through July 12

By Pamela Briggs

Seussical, now playing at Omar – I mean, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre – features an exuberant mash-up of plots from about a third of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s lifetime output of 60-plus children’s books. (And yeah, there were more Dr. Seuss books after he died. Peculiar thing, that.)

06 Jul 2026

Glitzkrieg: “Cabaret,” at the Timber Lake Playhouse through July 12

By Kitty Hooker

When I entered the Timber Lake Playhouse for its July 3 opening night of Cabaret and saw the stage draped with a gold foil fringe curtain and framed in marquee bulbs with a glowing red “KIT KAT KLUB” sign, the atmosphere felt equal parts seductive, artificial, and just a little bit unsettling.

22 Jun 2026

Tomb with a View: Genesius Guild's “Antigone,” at Lincoln Park through June 28

By Kitty Hooker

Genesius Guild’s current production of Antigone, directed by Michael Callahan, is the Guild’s annual high school show and features a cast of almost all teenagers – appropriate, considering that so many of the key characters, including the titular Antigone, are teenagers themselves.

15 Jun 2026

They the People, in Order to Form a More Perfect Union … : Quad City Music Guild's “1776,” at the Prospect Park Auditorium through June 21

By Pamela Briggs

Magic is on display in Quad City Music Guild's and director Kathryn Weber's current, spirited presentation of 1776, its music direction by Claire Schaecher and choreography by Beth Marsoun. (And I hear the intermission hot dogs are terrific.)

15 Jun 2026

Smells Like Cheese Spirit: “The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales,” at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through June 21

By Madeline Dudziak

John Glore’s theatrical adaptation preserves the witty, slightly dark sensibility that made the book so beloved by youth and adults alike, and as directed by Jennifer Hoeper, the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's presentation combines adults and children to bring these fractured fairy tales to life.

15 Jun 2026

Stand Up, They're Rockin' the 'Boat: “Guys & Dolls,” at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre through June 21

By Mike Schulz

This past Thursday, after a full week of unseasonably hot, muggy weather, we were finally treated to an evening that was cool and breezy. I'm prone to credit the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Guys & Dolls for the atmospheric shift, because as season-opening presentations go, this one was as cool and breezy as they come.

15 Jun 2026

Boat Over Troubled Water: “The Shark Is Broken,” at the Black Box Theatre through June 27

By Kitty Hooker

Because The Shark Is Broken is an insider look at the making of Jaws, it seems both fitting and somewhat ironic that the play and movie share the same villain.

15 Jun 2026

A Loaf of Bread, Some Jugs of Wine, and Wow: “Les Misérables,” at the Timber Lake Playhouse through June 28

By Mike Schulz

There's no point in burying the lede on this: The Timber Lake Playhouse's Les Misérables is the most visually powerful, thunderously well-performed area production I've seen since my first published stage review debuted in 2005, and even since I first arrived in the Quad Cities for college in 1986.

15 Jun 2026

“Something's Coming Somewhere Tonight, Maria.” “Cool!”: “West Side Story,” at the Spotlight Theatre through June 21

By Pamela Briggs

Adam Sanders' production has some of the most intricate, varied, prolonged, high-density, high-energy choreography I’ve yet seen.

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